Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-01-20
FOREIGN.
AN AWFUL cArAsrRorHE.
Particulars of the Terrible Theater Panic
in England.

Particulars of the Terrible Theater Panic
in England.
| LONDON, January 19th.-The scenes at
the panic last night were heart-rending.
Among those striving to get out ofthe build
| ing the conflict was indescribable, ruthless
and brutal, although of course not willful,
| it being a supreme case of everyone for
himself. 1t is stated that a number of in
| fants carried in their mothers arms and
who chung to them through the panic, were
also crushed or smothered to death, and
! that a number of others were fatally in
| jured. The scene during the attempt to re-
| turn was painful in the extreme. The be-
reaved remained at the doorways all night
waiting to have their dead restored to them
and the lamentations of the women were
heart breaking. The police have been Civ
| ing number of contradictory stories about
the cause of the panic. One statement is
that thieves started the cry of fire for the
purpose OF getting an opportunity to de-
spoil many rich Jewesses in the hall of the
costly jewels they bore on their persons.
THE SCENE TO-DAY.
The hall to-day resembled a disordered
auction-room. Broken furniture, crushed
| toys, children's hats, broken bottles, orange
peel, actors wigs and shreds of cloths lie
scattered over the floor. Many blood spots
| are on the backs of chairs and the floor
Every here and there CHASTITY knots of hair
are clinging to the furniture. Several es-
capes were made through the windows,
most of which are badly smashed.
Several bodies were found at the bottom
gallery. Here is where the ter
| rible struggle took place between the
| front of the crowd rushing from the main
floor and the leaders of the throng which
rushed down the gallery stairs. The dead
| lay mostly in two opposing rows, the feet
OF each row close to those of the other, one
row of heads lying toward the gallery stair
| way and the other towards the opposite
| side of the hall. The faces of the dead
were distorted with agonized expressions,
and the clothes completely torn from the
bodies of some.
A little girl, since identified ass Eva
Marks, was found lying at the bottom of the
pile of dead. Her lower limbs were bare,
and the upper part of her dress torn to
shreds, showing that she fought hard for
her life. Isaac Levy, venerable Hebrew
with white floating beard and hair, was
found among the dead. He and his wife
were regular attendants at the per-
Torrance. They always sat near the
door, and it is thought, from the posi-
ton in which his body was found,
that Levy, instead of fleeing alone
when the panic started, remained to help
protect his wife. So the old man was
brushed down by the rushing crowd and
stamped to death. His wife's body lay OPP
posite, a woman in the prime of life, who
wore brightly -colored clothes and quanti-
ties of jewelry. Beside her lay her little
boy. whose knickerbockers and stockings
were torn into shredS.
HOW THE PANIC STARTED.
A man named Harris Goldberg says he
went to the gallery of the hall, accompanied
by his wife and family. They all sat to-
gether The play was melodrama called
!" The Spanish Gypsy Girl" During the
performance some boys, in order to OBJ
tain better view of the stage, climbed
up an exposed gaspipe fixed along the
wall. This was strained and started leak.
Goldberg placed handkerchief over the
leak. Some one shouted, Turn off the
meterr' This shout was raised simultane-
ously with cry of alarm from one of the
actors on the stage. Then the people in
the gallery rose and rushed headlong down
the stairs. Goldberg's wife was torn away
from him and trampled to death. His g.
year-old son jumped upon the heads of the
packed mass and escaped.